Within the scope of the in-house research project “Climate Action with Transparent Scenarios” (CATS), the team from department V 1.1 “International Climate Action” of the German Environment Agency (UBA), is building up internal capacities for the use and further development of the integrated assessment model (IAM) “MESSAGEix” on climate change issues.
What are integrated assessment models (IAMs)?
Integrated assessment models are scientific tools that represent different social, economic and ecological systems in a common model framework. They make it possible to analyse interactions between these systems and identify development paths for different policy scenarios. They combine scientific findings on climate change with economic analyses and thus help to identify cost-efficient ways of achieving climate targets.
The role of IAMs in international climate policy
The MESSAGEix assessment model, which has been developed for many years at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) based in Austria, is an indispensable tool for scientific policy advice in the field of climate action. The scenarios created with it are regularly incorporated into key international reports, including the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), analyses for the European Commission and scenarios for the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS).
Cooperation between UBA and IIASA
As part of the cooperation, IIASA supports UBA in setting up and commissioning the necessary IT infrastructure for the independent use of the framework and in the further development of the model on issues of central importance to UBA. In return, UBA will contribute to better documentation of the framework and thus further increase its accessibility for new users. In addition, collaboration on the content of scientific publications is central to the cooperation.
Project goals and kick-off workshop
Central aspects of the collaboration were discussed at the kick-off workshop on December 10, 2024 at IIASA in Laxenburg (Austria). The focus was on the modelling of sufficiency approaches, socio-economic development paths and open science approaches in integrated assessment modelling. The UBA team presented the project objectives and gave an overview of the German scenario landscape. On the IIASA side, the head of the “Integrated Assessment and Climate Change” research group Volker Krey, the director of the “Energy, Climate, and Environment Program” Keywan Riahi and researchers Oliver Fricko, Fridolin Glatter, Aneeque Javaid, Siddharth Joshi, Jarmo Kikstra, Florian Maczek, Alessio Mastrucci, Measrainsey Meng and Xiaoyang Zhong took part. UBA was represented by project manager Niklas Roming and the scientific employees in the in-house research project Kikan Nelle and Lukas Eggert. IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber signed the cooperation agreement, which had already been signed by UBA President Dirk Messner, at a small ceremony with the workshop participants.
By using the MESSAGEix framework, UBA will be able to carry out its own integrated analyses of climate action strategies and thus make an important contribution to evidence-based environmental policy.
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